Bomb attack in southern Thailand injures 8 police officers

Eight police officers from Sai Buri Police Station in Pattani province, southern Thailand, were injured in a bomb attack while on patrol last night. Two police vehicles were damaged.

Before the incident, 11 officers went out on patrol in two pick-up trucks in the Sai Buri district. Assailants detonated a hidden bomb as the officers drove along the Ban Pa Thung – Bang Kao Road in Bang Khao subdistrict at 10.45pm. The assailants fled the scene.

One officer was injured by shrapnel and seven others suffered tinnitus and tight chests as a result of the explosion. All were taken to Crown Prince Sai Buri Hospital in Pattani for treatment.

The injured include Pol. Capt. Kittikhun Pongpetch, Pol. Snr. Sgt. Maj. Anon Wanthong, Pol. Sgt. Teeranat Pinnukit, Pol. Cpl. Sukhum Laichan, Pol. Cpl. Sanya Makmool, and Pol. Cpl. Sangha Cheecho, who sustained a wound on his elbow.

It is believed that the attack was taken out by insurgents given the history of insurgency attacks targeted at police officers and other Thai state representatives since violence resurfaced in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and parts of Songkhla in 2004.

In February, a bomb attack at a railway in Narathiwat province in southern Thailand injured eight subdistrict security officers while they were overseeing the safety of the railway line in the Reuso district.

Assailants planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on the side of the road and detonated the bombs when the security officers were walking past on the way back to their base.

That month, Pol. Maj. Prasan Kongprasit – an inspector at Bannang Sata Police Station in Yala province – was killed when a bomb went off as he and other officers were inspecting the crime scene of an arson attack.

In November last year, a car bomb explosion at police apartments in Narathiwat province killed one police officer and injured at least 20 more. A man dressed as a police officer was seen driving a pickup truck into the compound before the car bomb exploded.